The CHECK SWING!

[Warren Willson]

Originally posted by GarthB
If the swing is obviously late, say well after the catcher has gloved the pitch, then even though the batter may have failed to check his swing he clearly didn't offer at the pitch.


Warren:

With a R1 stealing second many coaches have a batter swing a bit late or slow enough to slow down the catcher without committing obvious interference. In these cases I rule that "yes indeedy, he went". I suppose I could call interference on the batter, but in these cases it's a tough sell and I choose to penalize the offense with the call that will bring about the lesser of the sh$t houses.

Point taken, GB.

The case I was thinking about occurred late in the game during a District League Div 2 fixture. The defense was short of pitching, so they were forced to leave a very ordinary pitcher on the mound - one we call a "pie chucker", because the ball travels so slow and is so easy to follow that it looks as big as a pie. He was ordinary enough that he had great trouble finding the zone most of the time. The offensive batters were figuratively licking their lips at the opportunity before them.

When the next batter, a known slugger, came to the plate the count agonized out to 3-1. On the next pitch the ball was clearly up, although it was over the plate. The batter's first instincts took over, and he didn't offer right away. However, milliseconds after the ball hit the catcher's glove he realised that he had probably missed his last opportunity to smack one over the fence, so he swung the bat! I called "Ball four. No he didn't go" and followed that with an explanatory "Alex, if you're going to convince me you've swung you'll have to do a lot better than that. Take your base." The catcher never said a word. He knew I'd done his pitcher a favor.

I'm not talking about a swing calculated to interfere with the catcher. I'd probably prefer to call the interference in such cases, but I take your point about the hard sell. The point was that there was no dispute that the batter swung - it just wasn't "at the pitch", which was clearly over before the swing began. That's more than "a bit late", wouldn't you say? *grin*

Cheers